Justice, Falkoner Salen (March 2012)

The French duo put on a good show but didn’t quite manage to live up to their legendary reputation

When word got out last year that France’s wild boys of all things electro, Justice, would be playing at Falconer Salen in March, tickets for the show sold out almost immediately. Justice’s sizeable global following is in itself a marvel, and their live show has evolved into a masterpiece that breaks borders and pushes the limits of what live entertainment can do to a partisan crowd.

Falconer Salen was as crammed as it possibly could have been long before Justice were anywhere near the stage, teeming with an audience of predominantly indie kids and beat-hungry hipsters. Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé took to the stage amidst high pitched whistles, shrieks and claps, opening their set with the epic, adrenaline-triggering ‘Genesis’, much to the delight of the excited crowd, who were ecstatic from the word go.

Augé and Rosney lived up to their hype — at least to start off with, firing a series of creative mashups of tracks off their two album releases that intertwined with each other in a manner that left no room for breaks from the full-on frenzy their music inspired.

Midway through the show and it was evident that the initial energy was losing its inertia. Justice responded by slamming chunky dance floor destroyers such as ‘Phantom Pt II’ and the indie-straddling ‘We Are Your Friends’, which has steadily evolved into something of an anthem for every Justice fan out there. At one point, the entire audience was crouched down facing the giant illuminated cross from behind which Justice worked their magic. The last time I’ve seen the audience bow in such fashion was at Mike Skinner’s (The Streets) concert at Roskilde in 2008, a testament of what Justice achieved when they were at their indomitable best. Several euphoric moments later and feet were in the air, T-shirts were flung haphazardly here and there and sweat beads were dripping down everyone’s faces.

While Justice were at times brilliant, at other times many earnest fans would no doubt have felt that there was an element or two missing to complete fully live up to the ravey, party-crazed pair’s reputation. All in though, no one left Falconer Salen unsatisfied, which is always a good sign.